Parra x Nike Air Max 1 'Friends & Family'
Colorway: White/Pure Platinum · Style code: AQ9973-100 · Release date: July 21, 2018 · Price: $1900 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: Parra x Nike Air Zoom Spiridon 'White Multi-Color' (AV4744-100) · Parra x Nike Blazer Low GT SB QS (CN4507-100) · Parra x Nike Air Max 1 (AT3057-100) · Nike Parra x Air Max 1 'Amsterdam' (313188-241) · Parra x Nike Dunk Low OG SB QS (CN4504-100)
Parra's public Air Max 1 in 2018 was one of the more recognisable Nike collaborations of that year: the Dutch artist's flattened, high-contrast colour work applied to a shoe already built around visible colour blocking. This Friends and Family version, made in a far smaller run and never sold, changes the terms. The most obvious departure is that the large side Swoosh is gone entirely; only the small forefoot mark remains, which on a model defined by that panel is a substantial thing to remove. Around the empty space the artist's prints run across the overlays and the mudguard in full colour, while the toe is left white, so the shoe reads calmer overall than the retail pair despite carrying more pattern. Underneath sits Tinker Hatfield's 1987 design, the shoe that first showed the Air unit through a window in the midsole. Pairs like this are given out rather than sold, which is why the version circulates through resale and almost nowhere else.